Park Pays Tribute To Volunteer

Entranceway Honors Baseball League Founder

April 2, 1995|By EILEEN SOLER Special to the Sun-Sentinel

A grassy knoll at the entrance to the Tequesta Trace Park softball complex in Weston was dedicated on Saturday to the memory of one of the founders and most devoted volunteers of the Western Area Little League.

Games were called to a halt as dozens of players and family members gathered at the softball park, which was decorated with three freshly planted live oak trees surrounded by colorful impatiens. They were there to remember Wayne Leonard, who helped establish the Weston-based Little League five years ago.

Leonard, involved in Little League most of his adult life, died on Aug. 5 at age 50, three months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

"He lived through the season to see my brother [Randy, 13) play and win on his birthday; it was really special to him," said Danny Leonard, 17, a junior at Western High School in Davie.

Twenty-six-year-old Jason Leonard's eyes welled up as he thanked the dozens of people who turned out to remember his dad, whom he called his personal hero.

Mara Leonard, Wayne Leonard's wife of 22 years, said she remembers her husband coaching Little Leaguers long before they had children of their own. "He coached and umpired for almost 20 years until six weeks before his death. His whole life was baseball."

Vice president of the league, Margie Dubnanski, of Weston, said the the softball complex was a field of dreams for Leonard.

Leonard, who was an accountant with Florida Power & Light for seven years, served as an umpire, coach and treasurer on the board of the Western Area Little League.